Blizard, Sir William (1743-1835)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0170
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Blizard, Sir William (1743-1835)
Date(s)	: 1785-1826
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 volume and 1 file
Name of creator(s)	: Blizard | Sir | William | 1743-1835 | Knight | surgeon

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sir William Blizard was born at Barn Elms, Surrey in 1743. He was apprenticed to a surgeon at Mortlake, and studied at the London Hospital. He attended the lectures of Sir Percival Pott at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was appointed surgeon to the London Hospital in 1780 and in 1785 founded the London Hospital Medical School together with Dr MacLaurin. Blizard lectured at the Medical School on Anatomy, Physiology and Surgery, and improved the London Hospital. He attached importance to the observance of ceremony, for which he was often mocked. Blizard was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1787, and was Master of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1814, and President in 1822. Blizard had a considerable practice, and attended Batson's Coffee House in Cornhill to await consultations. He died in 1836.

The name Samuel Helbert Israel [?] is inscribed at the top of the title page, possibly indicating the author of the lecture notes. P I and R V Wallis in Eighteenth Century Medics (1988), list a Samuel H Israel as a surgeon in London in the 18th and 19th centuries. He was apprenticed to Thomas Blizard (Sir William Blizard's nephew and also a surgeon at the London Hospital) in 1802.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Sir William Blizard, 1785-1826, comprising a volume, possibly by Samuel Helbert Israel, titled Lectures on Anatomy, Phys[iology] and Surgery by Wm Blizard RS-SA, containing manuscript notes of 27 lectures given by Blizard; letters, including a letter to L [?] Hoect, 3 Mar 1785; manuscripts, including a manuscript describing particular cases, Oct 1816; a manuscript titled The dissection of a dislocated thigh with fractures of some parts of the bones of the pelvis and other injury, July 1826. by Blizard; a manuscript copy of correspondence with Mr F C Daniel regarding Blizard's refusal to provide a certificate proving attendance as a pupil at the London Hospital, 27 Jun 1817; and an autograph signature.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The collection has been accumulated from various sources, and the provenance of some material is unknown.

The volume of lecture notes was purchased from a waste paper dealer by 'TMS' (presumably Thomas Madden Stone).

The autograph signature was presented by Mrs King in 1944, together with an engraving of William Blizard, the location of which is currently unknown.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Blizard letter - Accession Add Mss 436; and Russell, Raymond: Notes for biography of William Blizard - MS0174.

Hunterian Museum collection, pathological memoranda - notes on case of Arsee aneurism. 275.h.2 (16).

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.
Source: Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 5, 1886.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Sep 2008